Archive for the ‘Geriatrics’ Category

Complimentary article re Canada , the elderly and the Health Care Delivery System. See other post as well.

“Canada’s health-care providers are struggling to retool the system to meet the needs of an aging population that is often facing multiple, chronic medical conditions.

The phenomenon of the growing ranks of the frail elderly in need of different phases of care that often can be provided in the community did not exist 25 years ago. Yet the country’s health-care system remains mired in the 1950s, primarily focused on hospitals and with little in the way of community services to prevent the elderly from languishing in acute-care beds.”

Something has to be done in Canada re the demographically growing needs for elderly care and overall health care delivery and costs. Great to hear of some constructive working models that are achieving that.

“For cash-strapped provincial governments, the aging population is a concern because older adults account for a huge proportion of health costs in Canada. People 85 and older consumed $21,000 of health-care spending per capita in 2008, compared with just $1,700 for those between the ages of one and 65, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

“Our main problem is that while the patients have changed, our systems have not,” Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at the Mount Sinai and University Health Network hospitals in Toronto, said in a recent research paper.

CapitalCare is one of five provincially funded centres in Alberta that meet the complex needs of seniors by providing a doctor, nurse, physiotherapist, social worker and pharmacist, as well as recreational activities, all under one roof. The Edmonton site treats an average of 45 to 50 patients a day.

Manitoba has a similar program. The Program of Integrated Managed-care of the Elderly (PRIME) operates in Winnipeg, and the government plans to open a second centre in the city.

“It’s a specialty working with seniors,” said Judy Ahrens-Townsend, program developer and manager of PRIME. “They need holistic care and when they don’t get that, they end up in the system anyway getting care that’s not so effective.”

There are other examples where Canada is making inroads into dealing with seniors, the fastest-growing segment of the population.”